'Supreme Court is ours, Ram temple will be built': Uttar Pradesh minister Mukut Bihari Verma

Stirs row with remark

Vartha Bharati | 08-09-2018 | 21:57:00 IST

'Supreme Court is ours, Ram temple will be built': Uttar Pradesh minister Mukut Bihari Verma

Uttar Pradesh, Sept 08: Uttar Pradesh minister Mukut Bihari Verma on Saturday stirred a controversy with his comments on the Ram mandir. Verma said the temple will be built in Ayodhya because "the Supreme Court is ours".

"The temple is our blessing. The temple will be built," Verma said. "The Supreme Court is ours. The government is ours. The country is ours."

#BREAKING -- UP Mantri Mukut Bihari Verma stirs controversy, says "Supreme Court is ours, Ram Mandir will come up" | @pranshumisraa with more details pic.twitter.com/sNauPzUuQD
— News18 (@CNNnews18) September 8, 2018

Reacting to Verma's remarks, BJP leader Anila Singh told CNN-News18: "The Supreme Court is independent. We can't say that the Supreme Court works under any influence."

Adding that the matter of the Ram temple is sub judice, she added: "The Supreme Court doesn't belong to any organisation or political party."

However, Congress leader Sanjay Jha lashed out at the Uttar Pradesh minister for his remarks. "These are extremely condemnable statements," he said. "For a BJP minister to say that the Supreme Court is theirs is virtually insulting the judiciary and questioning the independence of the judiciary at the highest level."

"Can you imagine the kind of damage such dangerous propaganda does to the minds of so many ordinary people?" Jha told CNN-News18. "I hope the Supreme Court takes very stern action (against Verma)."

In August, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya had said he hoped that if the need arose and there was no way out, the Centre would take the legislative route to construct the Ram temple in the disrupted spot in Ayodhya when it has adequate numbers in both Houses.

Maurya had said: "At present, we do not have adequate strength in Parliament. Even if we bring the matter up in the Lok Sabha, our strength in the Rajya Sabha is less, and it will definitely be defeated. Every devotee of Lord Ram knows this. The court will soon give its judgement. The day we have the strength, it will be constructively used and not misused."

With inputs from PTI
Courtesy: www.firstpost.com